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Venice Commission finds Georgia’s grants and party laws block an opposition from surviving
Europe’s constitutional-law body, the Venice Commission, has published its opinion on the amendments Georgia’s parliament adopted in March to the Law on Grants, the organic law on political associations and the criminal code, Interpressnews reported on 13 October. The legislation imposes disproportionate and unnecessary restrictions on freedom of association and expression, the commission found, “preventing the formation and survival of a political opposition”.
Kazakhstan’s election commission sets 29 November for the maslikhats as Amanat withdraws
The Central Election Commission called extraordinary elections to maslikhats of all levels for Sunday 29 November at a sitting on 13 October, the day after Tokayev’s decree dissolved every council. Seven of the eight registered parties are admitted: Amanat, whose deputies held most of the seats, wrote to the commission that it will not take part.
Tashkent puts a former prosecutor in charge of defence and fills the Syrdarya seat
Shavkat Mirziyoyev appointed major general Botir Kudratkhodjaev defence minister on Monday, after the Legislative Chamber approved him the same day, replacing lieutenant general Shukhrat Khalmukhamedov, who had held the post since November 2024. A second decree made Doniyor Kadirov acting governor of Syrdarya region, the seat Erkinjon Turdimov left last week for the education and science ministry.
Tashkent names a first deputy prime minister to run the new education and science ministry
Erkinjon Turdimov, governor of Syrdarya region since January 2025, was appointed by presidential decree on Friday as first deputy prime minister and minister of education and science, Gazeta.uz reported at 19:16. The post is new in the cabinet’s structure, created alongside the ministry that merged school and higher education this month. A secretariat for education, science and health answers to Saida Mirziyoyeva.
Armenia’s Constitutional Court rejects the opposition’s challenge on the Catholicos clause
The Constitutional Court refused on Friday to examine a petition by the Strong Armenia and Armenia factions against the National Assembly’s decision approving the government programme, which envisages the removal of Catholicos Karekin II, ruling that programme provisions are political statements without normative content. Speaker Ruben Rubinyan also signed the order composing a parliamentary inquiry committee on the clergy that only majority deputies joined.
Kobakhidze calls the European Parliament worse than the Supreme Soviet of the late 1980s
Georgia’s prime minister answered Thursday’s 445-vote resolution on Friday by saying the European Parliament reminds him of the Supreme Soviet, which in his words was in better shape in the 1980s, while Speaker Shalva Papuashvili counted the ninth hostile resolution and Kakha Kaladze called them riddled with lies. EU foreign ministers take up Georgia under current affairs in Luxembourg on Monday.
Putin, Aliyev and Pezeshkian hold the first three-way summit since 2017 at Avaza
Vladimir Putin, Ilham Aliyev and Masoud Pezeshkian held a trilateral meeting after the Caspian Ecological Summit on Friday, Dmitry Peskov confirmed to Interfax, the first sitting of the Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran format since Tehran in November 2017. APA’s correspondent reported the North-South transport corridor as the main topic, Aliyev then received Pezeshkian separately, and Putin boarded his plane at Turkmenbashi after two full-format bilaterals in two days.
A Bishkek court jails Kadyr Atambayev for four years over a plot to seize power
The Pervomaisky district court of Bishkek convicted Kadyrbek Atambayev, the former president’s son known as Kadyr, of violent seizure of power under article 326 of the Criminal Code on Thursday and gave him four years with confiscation, the Bishkek outlet Economist.kg reported from the court’s registry. Social Democrats leader Temirlan Sultanbekov received four years, merged with his 2025 vote-buying sentence into seven, and former deputy Kubanychbek Kadyrov was acquitted.
Rospotrebnadzor ends the Irkutsk watch as Armenia’s new commission sits for the first time
Medical observation of every contact of the laboratory worker who died in Irkutsk has ended, the whole set of preventive measures was completed on 8 October and more than 5,500 laboratory tests found no dangerous pathogen, Rospotrebnadzor said on Thursday, calling social-media reports of a second case false. In Yerevan an interdepartmental commission created by the prime minister’s decision held its first meeting the same evening.
Three ministers answer the Irkutsk laboratory death as Moscow clears 90% of contacts
The death of a laboratory worker at Irkutsk’s anti-plague institute, pneumonia of unspecified etiology to Rospotrebnadzor and suspected pneumonic plague to ECDC, drew three answers on Wednesday: Mongolia’s health minister said temperatures are taken at the border and isolation rooms stand ready, Armenia’s minister told parliament arrivals face enhanced checks, and Georgia’s said there is no reason for panic. Moscow reported more than 90% of contacts released from observation.
Pashinyan expects the Turkish border to open and keeps Russia’s reactor offer in play
The Armenia-Türkiye border is expected to open in the near future alongside the TRIPP project, with rail links to Azerbaijan and Türkiye to follow, Nikol Pashinyan told the first Armenia-UK Business Forum in Yerevan on 6 October, by Armenpress’s account. The same evening he said no final decision had been taken on a new nuclear plant’s technology and the Russian option is not excluded.
Tajikistan’s visa waiver with Iran takes full effect at 30 days in every 90
The memorandum between the governments of Tajikistan and Iran on cancelling visas for holders of ordinary passports entered into force in full on 5 October 2026, Tajikistan’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday as Khovar carried it at 18:00. Citizens of either state may enter, transit or stay for up to 30 days in any 90-day period, through land crossings, international airports and air routes from third countries.
Moscow’s Afghanistan format ends with no statement as Overchuk reports trade up 2.5 times
The eighth round of the Moscow format consultations on Afghanistan ended on Monday without a final statement because the Afghan and Pakistani delegations could not agree a text, Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday, with the special envoys of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan at the table. Deputy prime minister Alexei Overchuk told foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi the same morning that trade had grown 2.5 times in seven months.
Georgian Dream dismisses the European Parliament’s resolution a day before the debate
Every resolution the European Parliament has adopted on Georgia in recent times is not worth the price of the paper it could be printed on, the chair of parliament’s legal affairs committee Archil Gorduladze said on Tuesday, a day before MEPs debate attempts by Georgian Dream to ban opposition parties and two days before they vote on a resolution.
Mongolia’s committees close the budget revision and push the deficit cap back to 2%
Mongolia’s Budget Standing Committee finished the fourth discussion of the 2026 budget revision on Tuesday and sent it to the plenary, the parliament’s press office said, while a joint session with the Economic Standing Committee backed, by 71.2% of those present, a proposal to keep the deficit cap in the Fiscal Stability Law at 2% of GDP against the 3% in the government’s bill.
Baku talks to Washington and Yerevan to Tehran about the same peace track on one day
Azerbaijan’s foreign minister Jeyhun Bayramov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the strategic partnership and the normalisation process with Armenia by telephone on Monday, Baku’s foreign ministry said, while Armenia’s foreign minister Ararat Mirzoyan was received by Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran and presented progress on the TRIPP route, by Yerevan’s readout.
Mongolia’s budget revision goes back to committee as the ruling party sets 20 October
Mongolia’s parliament sent the third reading of the 2026 budget revision back to its Budget Standing Committee on Monday, by 68.6% of the members present, to revisit two rejected proposals: a higher care allowance for citizens with disabilities and the education ministry’s lease payments. The ruling party’s faction chair Zh. Batjargal said it must pass by 20 October, ahead of the pension and pay rises due on 1 November.
Four German party foundations stop work in Georgia after Tbilisi rejects their grants
The Konrad Adenauer and Friedrich Naumann foundations closed their Tbilisi offices on 30 September after the government rejected on 28 July the grant applications the Law on Grants obliges them to file, and the Heinrich Böll and Friedrich Ebert foundations have followed, JAMnews reported on 2 and 3 October. Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said foreign political parties and their foundations “have no political mission to carry out in Georgia”.
Uzbekistan folds two ministries into one for education and science
A decree of 3 October merges the Ministry of Preschool and School Education and the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation into a Ministry of Education and Science, and gives the Cabinet a week to organise it. That evening economic adviser Obid Khakimov became deputy head of the presidential administration for education reform, and on Sunday businessman Zafar Khashimov was named to lead a working group on it.
Mongolia’s Democrats demand a confidence vote on Uchral as the Khural debates the budget
The Democratic Party’s political council asked on Friday that Prime Minister Uchral put a question of confidence to the Khural, party leader Tsogtgerel said, after its first demand, the dismissal of defence minister Batlut, went unanswered. The parliament sat the same day on the 2026 budget rewrite, with votes set for 17:00, and the industry minister said 78,000 tonnes of petrol are contracted from Russia for October.